"Faith with Deeds"

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them?" -- v.14

"Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." --vv. 21, 22

 

            A week ago Thursday, Kathy and I walked into the opening service of the Covenant Annual Meeting in St. Paul. About 1,000 people had gathered. The prelude was being sung by the Gospel Choir from Community Covenant Church in Minneapolis, which is an urban, multi-racial church. As they were singing I noticed out of the corner of my eye a pair of Alaskan drums walk by, and I looked up to see the group from Alaska Christian College who will be here on Tuesday evening. They had come from the villages of Alaska, and later in the service they would sing praise to God in their traditional Yupik and Inupiac language and style, dancing and beating the drums.

            The worship team then began to lead us in a few songs and then broke out into Spanish, "Tu Fidelidad," and "Cuan Grande es El." Then the organ led the processional hymn "Crown Him with Many Crowns" while delegations carrying flags from 40 countries came in. For many years we carried out missions work in 7 countries, but now the number is 40, and the presidents of the Covenant churches in many of these countries were present. That night four new long-term, or career, missionaries were consecrated, along with one project missionary and 19 short-term missionaries, serving from one to two years in various countries. Our President, Gary Walter, preached, and then the benediction was the "Prayer of St. Patrick," sung in Swedish by one of the guests from our mother church.

            I was deeply moved by the service, lasting two and a half hours. I realized that I had entered into a setting of living faith in Jesus Christ expressed in deeds of love and service and missions for the past 125 years. It was a powerful experience to witness the fruit of active faith over time.

            James writes about faith that gets expressed in acts of love and service. Craig Blomberg writes of this passage, "True saving faith will by nature produce good works. Faith and deeds work together to complete the process of salvation." David Nystrom writes, "Deeds are not extras to be added on to faith, they are essential to faith. True faith always changes the heart and therefore results in acts of mercy and compassion."

            But there is also a warning in this passage. Can faith be authentic if it never reaches the point of action? James says that such faith is without profit and does not lead to eternal life. In fact, he says that faith that does not bring about a changed life is dead.

            In our own tradition of Pietism there is a long history of faith with deeds. The German Pietists of the 17th century talked about living for "God's Glory and Neighbor's Good." When they built a new church in a community they usually built an orphanage as well.

            But, through the years, the church has found that it is not easy to hold faith and deeds together, not easy to live consistently for God's glory and neighbor's good. We tend to swing from one to the other. I remember in my seminary days, one of my professors, James Dittes, talking about the church as a sailing ship. He said sometimes all the people will rush to one side of the ship and it will get out of balance and start to veer off course, and then you have to run over to the other side and try to balance it again. Then, later, the people will all run to the other side, and you have to counter that as well. Sometimes the church is all about holding correct doctrine, and love gets left behind. Other times it is all about loving people and it tends to forget what it believes. Sometimes the church focuses exclusively on surrendering the heart to God, and other times the emphasis is all on study and action. Sometimes the church gets involved in politics and community affairs, and other times it retreats into prayer and worship. It is hard to keep a balance, to keep faith and works tied together.

            But there is another danger. It is not always moving from one side to another. Sometimes there is a laziness that creeps into the church, an acceptance of the world's values. It seems that the church that James writes to began to follow a cultural model. The Roman cultural values of treating the poor badly, of ignoring their needs, seem to have made some in the church lazy in their faith. Their faith became essentially self-interest. They saw a brother or sister in the faith without daily bread or adequate clothing, and they did nothing about it, but said, "Go in peace." Worldly thinking was convincing them that they could be followers of Jesus Christ but have no ministry, and not really do anything for Jesus.

            Sometimes in the church we can choose the easier path. That might mean doing some deeds of mercy, setting up the beds at PADS or collecting food for Sharefest, but neglecting prayer, evangelism or missions. Or it might mean the opposite. We could choose to focus on Bible study and worship, but have no involvement in ministering to the needs of people, of expressing compassion to the poor and seeking justice. It is possible to become lazy in our faith, to choose the easy route.

            That is why James uses Abraham and Rahab as examples of those who held to both personal faith and deeds of compassion and obedience. Abraham believed God. He had faith where he could not see what would happen next. But Abraham also acted in obedience. His was not an easy service to God, but a true personal encounter with God and surrender to the will of God.

            Rahab was at the other end of the spectrum. She was considered a sinner, a foreigner, a woman who really was powerless in her situation. Yet she risked her life in obedience to God to hide the spies. She obeyed because she believed in God, a God she did not fully know. Yet her life was one of trust that led to action.

            In the gospel lesson in Luke 7 we read of the woman who came to anoint the feet of Jesus. She had lived a sinful life, and yet she was drawn to Jesus. She showed love and faith in him, wiping his feet with her hair, washing them with her tears, anointing them with expensive perfume. She served Jesus, she repented of her sin, she loved much, and she went away forgiven because of her faith. It was not her doctrine that saved her, but her personal trust. It was her faith that expressed itself in deeds of love.

            Efrem Smith is the pastor of Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, and he was just installed as the new superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference. When he spoke to the ministers, he said that it is intimacy with Jesus Christ that drives innovation in ministry, and not strategy. It is personal faith and prayer that opens doors to reaching our communities for Christ. Abiding in Christ results in living for Christ.

            The president of the Covenant Church in Taiwan spoke briefly at one meeting. He said that the Taiwan church is now in a time where they are enjoying praying together They are glad to come together to pray and do not see the prayer meeting as an obligation, but as a joyful experience. Out of that experience, the Taiwan church is now sending missionaries to the Philippines, to Thailand, to Japan, to South Africa, to New Zealand and to China. God's glory, neighbor's good. Faith with deeds.

            We come now to communion, in order to experience the grace of Christ that cleanses and renews us, that draws us into a close fellowship and calls us to surrender our lives to the Lord. In that communion we also hear the call of God on our lives, to serve the Lord and join in his Kingdom work.

            Amen.